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  • Exploring del.icio.us

    Chapter 1What Is del.icio.us?

    Chapter 2Enhancing Your Browser

    Chapter 3Seasoning Your Desktop

    part

    in this part

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  • What Is del.icio.us?

    On the site’s About page, you’ll find that del.icio.us is described as a“social bookmarks manager.” But, unlike many of the early socialsoftware offerings that have peaked in popularity over the past fewyears, del.icio.us wasn’t created just to help you find a job or hook you upwith a date for Saturday night. Instead, del.icio.us is all about links: book-marking, describing, tagging, sharing, and discovering things on the Web.

    Now, at first glance, you might wonder what del.icio.us has over the bookmarks menu in your browser. Well, just for starters, links posted todel.icio.us are available from pretty much anywhere in the world. And,you’ll never need to import or convert bookmarks between Web browsersagain — unless you really want to, that is.

    But here’s where the social aspects start to come into play: Every time youadd a bookmark to your del.icio.us collection, the site tells you about otherpeople who’ve posted the same link. From here, you can dive into others’collections. After awhile you’ll discover people who tend to link to the samethings as you — and in exploring their collections, you just might stumbleupon interesting things you wouldn’t have found otherwise.

    Another socially enhanced feature that’s central to the del.icio.us experienceis tagging. A tag on del.icio.us might best be described as a freeform crossbetween a keyword and a category. Like a keyword, a tag is meant to beshort and sweet — one word, maybe a tiny phrase or WikiWord. But, like a category, a tag is used to group bookmarks together. Where the benefits of tagging begin to emerge is when many people converge on the same tagsfor similar topics. Tagging becomes very powerful when it’s turned into amultiplayer game.

    And finally, del.icio.us has its doors thrown open wide to welcome tinkeringand remixing. Bookmarks listed by user and tags are available as XML feedsright alongside the HTML meant for human consumption. Most majorfeatures of the site offered for use within a browser are made available toscripts and third-party tools via a simple HTTP GET and XML-based API. By eschewing zealous restrictions on access to achieve user lock-in,del.icio.us has become even more popular and relied-upon than it might’veotherwise.

    � Signing up andgetting started

    � Sharing links

    � Making bookmarkssocial

    � Exploring tags

    � Subscribing tobookmarks

    � Programming with the del.icio.us API

    � Joining thecommunity

    chapter

    in this chapter

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  • 4 Part I — Exploring del.icio.us

    Signing Up and Getting StartedTaking advantage of what del.icio.us has to offer requires audience participation, so why notstart off by getting yourself signed up for an account? Open up a browser window and pay avisit to the del.icio.us home page, shown in Figure 1-1. Oh, and in case it’s at all confusing:The site’s title is also the URL (http://del.icio.us).

    FIGURE 1-1: del.icio.us home page (not logged in)

    This first page welcomes you with a bit of introductory text to explain the site. If you like,click around and read more about the site. Eventually, however, you’ll want to sign up for anaccount. This is easy to do — use either the form presented on the home page or click the reg-ister link in the site’s upper navigation bar. Click here, and you’ll be presented with a form tocreate a new account for yourself.

    On the registration page (shown in Figure 1-2), you’ll find a form asking for a username andpassword alongside optional fields for your name and email address. Even though the emailaddress is optional, you really should provide it if you’d ever like to recover a lost password.A more recent addition to the form is the use of a CAPTCHA, an attempt to foil automatedaccount creation by robots. This is one of the few spots where automation isn’t welcome — thecreators of del.icio.us do want to know who’s to blame when a robot runs amok, after all.

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  • 5Chapter 1 — What Is del.icio.us?

    FIGURE 1-2: Registering to create an account

    CAPTCHAs — or, “completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humansapart” — are a growing practice on modern Web sites. But, if you’ve never seen one before orare just curious about them, here are a few pointers to follow for more information:

    The CAPTCHA Project: www.captcha.net/

    Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha

    Anyway, you know what to do: Fill out the form, make sure you pass the Turing test, and clickthe register button. You should be given a page something like Figure 1-3 in response, unlessyou happen to run into a problem — such as attempting to claim a username already regis-tered, or if you happen to fail the CAPTCHA test.

    If you supplied an email address when you registered an account, you’ll be informed about a ver-ification email that’s on its way. This message will contain a link you’ll need to click in order toverify that the address you’ve given is correct. This is just one more way to ensure you’re a livehuman being.

    Immediately after successfully creating your new account at del.icio.us, you’re greeted with aninitial page of instructions (refer to Figure 1-3). The primary way to interact with the site isvia “bookmarklets,” which are small capsules of JavaScript code executable as bookmarks. Asthe instructions suggest, you should probably use your browser’s Links (on IE) or Navigation(on Firefox) toolbar as home to these bookmarklets, where they’ll be within easy reach. Whatyou’re looking at are the first steps toward replacing your old browser bookmark habits.

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  • 6 Part I — Exploring del.icio.us

    FIGURE 1-3: Post-registration help with del.icio.us bookmarklets

    Once you’ve created an account successfully, you’ll find that you’re automatically logged intothe site (see Figure 1-4). The introductory material that was shown in Figure 1-1 has gottenout of your way, and now you see the site’s front page view. This page offers a sort of two-pronged fire hose of links, giving you the most recent links to be posted to the site alongsidethe moment’s most popular links.

    If you hadn’t noticed before, you can see that this site is obsessed with links: Nearly everythingon this page is a hyperlink to somewhere else — and links to within del.icio.us itself are in theminority!

    Sharing LinksNow that you’ve gotten yourself an account on del.icio.us, and you’ve successfully installed thebookmarklets, you’re ready to start sharing links.

    Browse to a site — any site besides del.icio.us itself — and click the “remember this” book-marklet. You should shortly see a page like Figure 1-5. Thanks to the JavaScript code in thebookmarklet, this page comes pre-populated with the URL and page title found from the pre-vious page. From here, you can optionally supply a bit of extended description for this URL —some people fill this in with a quote lifted from the page, while others supply their own com-mentary or witticisms.

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  • 7Chapter 1 — What Is del.icio.us?

    FIGURE 1-4: del.icio.us home page after login

    FIGURE 1-5: Posting a link

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  • 8 Part I — Exploring del.icio.us

    The other field available on this form allows you to associate tags with this link. You can enterthese manually, one after another, separated by spaces. You can also take advantage of whatevertag suggestions appear associated with this link by clicking on one or more, which automati-cally appends them to the tags field. I’ll get into this a bit more in a minute, but it’s useful topay attention to these recommendations. They’ll help you take advantage of consensus builtamong other del.icio.us users.

    Finally, once you’ve reviewed everything to your satisfaction, go ahead and click the “save” but-ton. Alternately, most browsers allow you to simply hit Return in one of the form fields to sub-mit the form, shaving seconds off your posting time. Shortly after submission, del.icio.us takesyou right back to the URL where you started.

    Congratulations! You’ve just posted your first bookmark to del.icio.us. Now, check out yourpersonal collection. To get there, just add your user name after http://del.icio.us/.

    For example, my own collection can be found here:

    http://del.icio.us/deusx

    Figure 1-6 gives you a look at what my bookmark collection looked like just after posting thelink from Figure 1-5. The newly posted link appears at the top of the list because the collectionis presented in reverse-chronological order. You should be able to see the extended description Iadded, as well as the collection of tags I selected. Note, also, that there are links to edit or deleteeach bookmark.

    FIGURE 1-6: Visiting a del.icio.us bookmark collection

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  • 9Chapter 1 — What Is del.icio.us?

    Making Bookmarks SocialNow that you have gotten a start on your collection of links, it’s time to take a deeper look intojust what it means to use a “social bookmarks manager.” You might want to post a few morelinks of your own before reading on, especially if those links have appeared somewhere such as a popular news site. Alternately, you can visit someone else’s bookmark collection (e.g.,http://del.icio.us/deusx), which might have a few more posted links.

    What you should be looking for is visible in Figure 1-6: Each bookmark has an indicator ofhow popular the link has become, with a color-coded count of other users who’ve posted thesame link. This is more than a simple indicator, however — these are links that, when clicked,will result in something like what’s shown in Figure 1-7.

    The page in Figure 1-7 is a listing of notes posted by users who all bookmarked this URL.Here you’ll find variations in how people have edited the title or extended descriptions for aparticular link, as well as what collection of tags others have chosen to attach.

    You can also see a ranking of common tags users have attached to this particular URL, in orderof their popularity. This should give you a taste of how del.icio.us attempts to provide a roughview of the consensus among its users.

    FIGURE 1-7: Viewing common details on a bookmark

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  • 10 Part I — Exploring del.icio.us

    Another feature on the page shown in Figure 1-7 is in the sidebar and rather understated: the“related items - show” link: Check out what happens when you click this link (see Figure 1-8).Because providing this display takes a relatively large chunk of processing, it’s not done bydefault. But, if you click here, you’ll get a list of recommended URLs that may be similar to thebookmarked URL you’re currently viewing. This is based on analyzing the postings of otherusers and similar tags used for other bookmarks.

    FIGURE 1-8: Viewing related URLs associated with a bookmark

    Speaking of URLs

    Although it might not mean much to you until you start getting into some deeper hackingwith del.icio.us, there’s one more not-so-obvious feature to these pages in Figures 1-7 and1-8. If you’ve been watching so far, you may have noticed that most of the URLs used tonavigate the features of del.icio.us are very straightforward and simple — except for thisone. This URL contains a string of apparently random letters and numbers reminiscent ofopaque session tracking used in many “Web 1.0” applications.

    Continued

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  • 11Chapter 1 — What Is del.icio.us?

    Exploring TagsYou’ve already been exposed to tags so far in your exploration with del.icio.us — both in supply-ing them when you post a bookmark and as links associated with displayed bookmarks — butnow it’s time to check them out in detail.

    Since the feature was introduced on del.icio.us, many articles, papers, blog entries, and inspiredimplementations have been devoted to tagging. Tags are like categories turned inside out:Instead of meticulously placing bookmarks into a carefully arranged hierarchy of folders, youattach the tags to bookmarks. And rather than use a taxonomy of topics well considered andagreed upon in committee, the design of del.icio.us encourages the use of tagging in a flatnamespace somewhat akin to word association — just fire off a handful of words you mightvaguely consider in characterizing the link you’re posting and submit.

    It might sound hasty and sloppy, but it works. In fact, it works because it’s hasty and sloppy:Because you don’t have to put much effort or thought into the process, you’re more likely toactually do it — as opposed to many well-intentioned and richly expressive approaches tometadata and classification that never actually see use by real people on a daily basis.

    For a start, you might want to check out the master list of tags in use on the site. You can seewhat this page looks like in Figure 1-9, and you can visit it for yourself at the following URL:

    http://del.icio.us/tag

    This sort of tag presentation has often been called a “tag cloud.” The tags all appear as links ina big visual jumble, with more heavily used tags appearing in more emphasized and largerfonts. This particular page is arranged alphabetically by default, but you can click the “by size”link to see the tags sorted in order of popularity. If you click any of these tags, you’ll find a pagelisting links from anyone who chose to attach that particular tag to their posting.

    Well, as it turns out, this string is an MD5 hash of a bookmarked URL. This technique isused to sidestep any issues involved in referring to a URL as a query parameter in anotherURL. Given any URL, run an MD5 hash on it, and you can find it on del.icio.us — providedthat someone, somewhere has posted a bookmark to it. In the coming chapters, you’ll seea few hacks that make use of this little trick.

    Not sure what an MD5 hash is? Basically, it’s a way to produce a consistent 128-bit finger-print of any given collection of data. When expressed in hexadecimal, MD5 hashes come outto 16 characters in length no matter what the content of the original data, thus making themconvenient and predictable digests for data. Here are a few pointers to more information:

    ■ Wikipedia on MD5: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5

    ■ RFC 1321: www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1321.html

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  • 12 Part I — Exploring del.icio.us

    FIGURE 1-9: Viewing overall tags in use

    For example, if you were to click “osx” — one of my favorite tags — you’d see a page similar toFigure 1-10. This is again just a reverse-chronological presentation of links with descriptions,along with their attached tags and an indication of popularity. The important thing to notice,however, is that every one of these links has had the “osx” tag attached.

    It’s when you’ve got many people tagging similar links that the social aspects start to bear fruit:People tend to attach similar tags to similar things. And, even where people tend to differ slightlyin their choice of tags (e.g., “osx” versus “mac”), del.icio.us can make attempts to present similartags together. It’s a fuzzy process, but it hits a sweet spot between laziness and utility.

    As you can see in Figure 1-10, the “osx” tag offers you what amounts to a decently topic-focused linkblog, thanks to the fact that most people use this tag when posting links related to Apple’s Mac OS X operating system. On the other hand, notice the “related tags” listing inthe upper right. If you haven’t found what you’re looking for on this tag display, try one ofthose — these have been assembled after an analysis of what other tags tend to appear in thesame context as the current page’s tag.

    Using something akin to peer pressure, the site can gently nudge people toward more popular —and therefore more agreed-upon — tags through examples and recommendations. Over time,shared tagging forms a sort of ad hoc and emergent classification scheme, which, although vagueand fuzzy, is in many ways superior to more intentionally planned schemes — if only by virtue ofits actually being useful and subject to constant updates.

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  • 13Chapter 1 — What Is del.icio.us?

    FIGURE 1-10: Checking out links under the “osx” tag

    Besides viewing single tags, you can also check out tag intersections by tossing a few tags sepa-rated by “+” into your URL. This shows you links that have all of the specified tags. For exam-ple, the following URL displays links tagged with both “apple” and “css”:

    http://del.icio.us/tag/apple+css

    These links might help you sort out some details specific to developing Web pages using CSS onApple’s Safari Web browser.

    Now, after all this talk about the social aspects of tagging, it’d be nice to see some of the per-sonal benefits of tags. I mean, these are your bookmarks after all; what about your tags? Well,try this URL on for size:

    http://del.icio.us/deusx/osx

    If you like, substitute your own user name for the deusx. Either way, you should find a page thatlooks like Figure 1-11. Here you’ll see just the bookmarks you’ve posted with this tag attached.And also notice that, because the results have been focused down to your own collection, there aresome richer options for further search: A list of your own related tags is available for tag intersec-tion drilldown, as well as the master list of your other tags in use. Also worth noting is that there’sa link back to the shared tag, but you’ve already seen that page in Figure 1-10.

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  • 14 Part I — Exploring del.icio.us

    FIGURE 1-11: Viewing bookmarks under a user’s personal tag

    Something else to notice on the page shown in Figure 1-11 is the option to view recommen-dations. This is just another example of the social intelligence del.icio.us offers. Check outFigure 1-12 for an example of what these recommendations look like. Here, you’ll find point-ers toward other people who’ve turned up as statistically like-minded, at least with respect towhat you think this particular tag means.

    Keep in mind, however, that these recommendations aren’t magic: This feature will reward youto the degree that you’ve loaded your account up with bookmarks. The more you post, the bet-ter your results.

    Subscribing to BookmarksOnce you’ve had a chance to wander around a bit, you might start finding people whose collec-tions reliably turn up interesting items for you. Or, you might discover that you’ve got friendsalready on del.icio.us who’d like to post links directly intended for your attention. You willprobably also discover combinations of tags that perfectly suit your interests — wouldn’t it benice to be kept in the loop on all the new bookmarks that show up there?

    Well, although exploration and browsing are activities that the del.icio.us user interface invites,it also offers a few options to keep you updated with less manual effort.

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  • 15Chapter 1 — What Is del.icio.us?

    FIGURE 1-12: Viewing recommendations associated with a user’s tagged bookmarks

    As a registered del.icio.us user, you have an inbox at your disposal. With this tool, you can reg-ister interest in other users’ collections and maintain a socially focused aggregated page of theirbookmarks. Also, as you discover friends with del.icio.us user names, you can apply a specialfor: tag to your bookmarks to catch their attention — and vice versa. And, finally, so many ofthe lists and pages on del.icio.us offer RSS feeds you can pull into feed readers and aggregatorsso that you can be truly kept up-to-date.

    Tracking Others’ Bookmarks with Your InboxWhat would a socially oriented site be without a friends’ list or a buddy network? Well, that’snot quite what the inbox on del.icio.us is for, but it does let you gather up other users’ collec-tions into a single aggregated view where you can more easily keep updated on their new book-marks. Figure 1-13 offers a peek at what this page looks like once you’ve started adding a fewusers’ names.

    You can access your own inbox from the prominently placed “inbox” link right next to “yourbookmarks” in the top-of-page site navigation. Unlike many social software services, however,your collection of inbox subscriptions is private and not readily viewable by other users. Thisisn’t so much a popularity contest as it is a tool to help you stay fed with interesting things fromlike-minded people. The list management page, shown in Figure 1-14, is accessible via the“edit inbox” link in the “subs” box on the right side of the inbox page.

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  • 16 Part I — Exploring del.icio.us

    FIGURE 1-13: Viewing a populated del.icio.us inbox

    FIGURE 1-14: Managing names collected for the inbox

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  • 17Chapter 1 — What Is del.icio.us?

    The interface here is very simple and to the point: In Figure 1-15, you can see a form at thebottom of the page you can use to add a user’s bookmarks to your subscriptions list. You canalso specify a tag, in case you’d like to narrow your attention down to a particular topic coveredby an individual’s bookmarks. You can also remove existing subscriptions, as well as renamethem using some label more meaningful to you than a username or tag.

    FIGURE 1-15: Adding a new user to the inbox

    Sending and Receiving Bookmarks Using TagsWhile you can keep tabs on individual people with your inbox, your friends and colleagues cantake a more direct route to get your attention using the for: tag prefix. Any time you tag a book-mark using a del.icio.us user name prefixed by for:, that bookmark appears in the user’s “for”collection. This page is available as a link right next to the “inbox” link in the top site navigation.

    So, for example, if someone were to tag a bookmark with for:deusx when posting, I’d seethat link appear in my personal “for” list in Figure 1-16. You can tag a bookmark using any username, and anyone on del.icio.us can tag a link intended for your attention. It’s worth notingthat while the bookmark itself is not private, the for: tag is hidden from public view alongwith your aggregate collection of these tagged links.

    Taken together, the for: tag prefix and private collection form a sort of messaging system youand your colleagues can use to share links and bring interesting things to each others’ attentions.

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  • 18 Part I — Exploring del.icio.us

    FIGURE 1-16: Viewing bookmarks tagged with for:deusx

    Discovering del.icio.us RSS FeedsAs I mentioned before, del.icio.us provides many ways to get information into and out of theservice. Besides bookmarklets and browser-viewed pages, del.icio.us also offers RSS feeds formany of the more interesting views on links posted to the site.

    For an introduction to the various feeds offered by del.icio.us, check out the help page on thesubject (shown in Figure 1-17):

    http://del.icio.us/help/rss

    In a nutshell, RSS feeds at del.icio.us are machine-readable XML documents that provideupdated views of the lists of links you’ve been browsing throughout the site so far. Rather thanremembering to visit del.icio.us to look for updates, you can use a feed reader or aggregator tokeep tabs on these RSS feeds so that interesting new links will come to you.

    Are you new to RSS feeds? These feeds aren’t an original del.icio.us invention — if you’re inter-ested, you can find more reading on RSS with this Wikipedia article:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)

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  • 19Chapter 1 — What Is del.icio.us?

    FIGURE 1-17: Documentation on finding and using del.icio.us RSS feeds

    Reading the help pages at del.icio.us, you can see that several forms of RSS feeds are available,such as:

    � Links that have been recently posted

    � Links that have recently become popular

    � Links posted by an individual user

    � Links posted with a particular tag or combination of tags

    � Links posted by an individual user with a particular combination of tags

    And there are quite a few more streams of links from del.icio.us that have corresponding RSSfeeds — keep an eye out for them. You should be able to see the familiar orange RSS iconappearing in the footer of many pages, as well as when these icons are called out elsewhere inthe page.

    Also, many feed aggregators and Web browsers are capable of “sniffing out” available RSS feedswhen they’ve been included in a Web page’s metadata.

    For example, most of the screenshots in this chapter were taken using Mozilla Firefox(www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/). If you look back through the figures provided so far, you may notice a special “transmission wave” icon appearing in the location bar on

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  • 20 Part I — Exploring del.icio.us

    many occasions. This is an indication that the pages displayed have corresponding RSS feeds.You can see this feature yourself, if you visit del.icio.us with Firefox.

    Other browsers, such as Apple’s Safari, offer similar RSS autodiscovery features. Also, somefeed aggregators use this technology to let you simply provide the human-readable URL for aWeb site, which will then be used to discover the machine-readable version. The end result ofall of this is that del.icio.us makes it easy for both human beings and machines to gain access tobookmarks flowing into the site.

    If you don’t already have a feed aggregator that you use regularly, you may want to check outMozilla Thunderbird (www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/). This is an opensource application that offers email and feed aggregation features all in one place. Plenty ofcommercial and shareware options are available, but I use Thunderbird here for demonstrationpurposes.

    In Figure 1-18, you can see a subscription to links tagged with delicious, as well as popularlinks and links that have been posted by others for my viewing with a for:deusx tag. Viewinglinks in an aggregator is just the start of where RSS feeds from del.icio.us become useful, how-ever. These feeds, as well as their uses beyond feed aggregators, will come up again and in moredetail in the coming chapters.

    FIGURE 1-18: Feeds from del.icio.us in Mozilla Thunderbird

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  • 21Chapter 1 — What Is del.icio.us?

    Programming with the del.icio.us APIThrough machine-readable RSS feeds, del.icio.us provides a way to get bookmarks out of thesystem and into other applications. But wait, there’s more — the site also offers a rich Web-based application programming interface (or API) that enables you to develop your own scriptsand software wrapped around del.icio.us functionality.

    This API goes beyond simple timely updates of links: You can make custom queries of yourbookmarks by time and tag — as well as request a full dump of your data in case you ever wantto back it up or switch services. Furthermore, you can post new bookmarks via the API, as wellas perform a few tag maintenance functions.

    This is just a quick summary of what capabilities the API provides. You can start digging intosome details about the del.icio.us API in Appendix A. You’ll also get a chance to see the APIput through its paces in future chapters, both in your own code and in other programs thatextend and enhance the functionality offered by this social bookmarking service.

    Joining the CommunityIn addition to fostering a community based on bookmarks shared between friends and like-minded strangers, there’s also a meta-community surrounding del.icio.us itself. You can keepup-to-date with updates and changes made to the service, as well as catch announcements anddiscussion about new software and third-party services under development by others.

    The del.icio.us team maintains a blog located at this address:

    http://blog.del.icio.us/

    Here, you’ll be able to catch new features and official announcements by the developers work-ing on the site daily. Occasionally, you may find things such as tutorials on how to use the serv-ice or details on events and conferences where del.icio.us team members appear.

    If email threads are more to your liking, there’s also a long-running mailing list you can join fordiscussion and details about del.icio.us and other related developments. You can find archivesand subscription details here:

    http://lists.del.icio.us/pipermail/discuss/

    And finally, if you’d like more immediate contact with del.icio.us fans and developers, there’s alive Internet Relay Chat (or IRC) channel located here:

    irc://irc.del.icio.us:6667/delicious

    If your IRC client doesn’t support URLs such as the one provided, try connecting to the serverirc.del.icio.us on port 6667 and joining channel #delicious.

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  • 22 Part I — Exploring del.icio.us

    Don’t have an IRC client? Here are a few free clients you may want to check out:

    Windows, Linux: XChat at www.xchat.org/

    Mac OS X: Colloquy at http://colloquy.info/

    SummaryThis chapter’s whirlwind tour of features available at del.icio.us didn’t even touch experimentalfeatures — and I’m sure to have missed a few more updates by the time you read this. But youshould now at least have a taste for what’s possible with this social bookmarking service.

    On the surface, this site offers an easy way for you to move your bookmarks out of yourbrowser for access from anywhere in the world, where you can share them with friends. Andonce you’ve started sharing your bookmarks, a payoff comes in the form of recommendationsand the opportunity to find other like-minded link gatherers. Then, when you’re ready to divedeeper, there are RSS feeds and an API to explore for hacks and tweaks, which you’ll see in thecoming chapters.

    But, you’re not quite ready to close your browser yet: In the next chapter, you see that there’s alot more to it than the starter set of bookmarklets you were given when you first signed up.

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